NAIROBI, Kenya: Unknown gunmen attacked the home of Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto on Saturday seriously injuring a policeman, less than two weeks before the country votes in high-stakes polls, two security sources told AFP.
Ruto was not home during the attack. An officer from the elite police General Service Unit (GSU) seriously injured, a security official who was not authorised to speak to the press said.
"There are armed people who staged the attack and have shot the GSU officer and stolen his gun," the official said.
Security forces are trying to establish if there are still attackers in the deputy president's "expansive" home near the town of Eldoret, some 312 km northwest of the capital Nairobi, a senior police officer said.
"More security personnel have been deployed and a security operation is ongoing," the officer said.
The attack occurred despite the round-the-clock presence of guards from the GSU's top-notch reconnaissance unit.
A spokesman for Ruto declined to comment but the security official said the deputy president had left the house shortly before the attack to attend a rally alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta, his running mate who faces a tight re-election contest on Aug. 8 against longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Ruto's home sits in Kenya's western Rift Valley area, the flashpoint for an outbreak of election violence after the disputed 2007 polls that killed 1,100 people and tarnished Kenya's image as a regional beacon of safety and stability.
According to opinion polls, this year's election will be close and tensions have been rising.
Odinga has repeatedly claimed the government is scheming to steal the election, while Kenyatta has accused Odinga of trying to delay the polls.
Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said it had received reports of threats and voter intimidation in Naivasha, a flashpoint town in 2007 and one of the potential hotspots in this year's election.
In the Rift Valley, hate speech flyers have been circulating and some local residents have already left their homes.
The 2007 bloodshed haunted both Ruto and Kenyatta long after it ended, when the International Criminal Court put both on trial for orchestrating the violence.
Those charges were later dropped, with ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda blaming a relentless campaign of victim intimidation for making a trial impossible.
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Unknown gunmen attack Kenya deputy president's home
Unknown gunmen attack Kenya deputy president's home
Israel says Netanyahu will meet with Trump on Wednesday about Iran talks
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday about the US talks with Iran
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday about American talks with Iran, his office said Saturday, while Iran’s foreign minister threatened US military bases in the region a day after the discussions.
“The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting the ballistic missiles, and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement, referring to Tehran’s support for militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Trump and Netanyahu last met in December.
There was no immediate White House comment.
The US and the Islamic Republic of Iran held indirect talks on Friday in Oman that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump called the talks “very good” and said more were planned for early next week. Washington was represented by Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear program after sending the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships to the region amid Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide protests that killed thousands.
Gulf Arab nations fear an attack could spark a regional war, with memories fresh of the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June.
For the first time in negotiations with Iran, the US on Friday brought its top military commander in the Middle East to the table. US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the military’s Central Command, then visited the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday with Witkoff and Kushner, the command said in a statement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists Friday that “nuclear talks and the resolution of the main issues must take place in a calm atmosphere, without tension and without threats.” He said that diplomats would return to their capitals, signaling that this round of negotiations was over.
On Saturday, Araghchi told the Al Jazeera satellite news network that if the US attacks Iran, his country doesn’t have the ability to strike the US “and therefore has to attack or retaliate against US bases in the region.”
He said there is “very, very deep distrust” after what happened during the previous talks, when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites during last year’s Israel-Iran war.
Araghchi also said the “missile issue” and other defense matters are “in no way negotiable, neither now nor at any time in the future.”
Tehran has maintained that these talks will be only on its nuclear program.
However, Al Jazeera reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar offered Iran a proposal in which Tehran would halt enrichment for three years, send its highly enriched uranium out of the country and pledge to “not initiate the use of ballistic missiles.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the talks needed to include all those issues.
Israel, a close US ally, believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon and wants its program scrapped, though Iran has insisted that its atomic plans are for peaceful purposes. Israel also wants a halt to Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for militant groups in the region.
Araghchi, speaking at a forum in Qatar on Saturday, accused Israel of destabilizing the region, saying that it “breaches sovereignties, it assassinates official dignitaries, it conducts terrorist operations, it expands its reach in multiple theaters.” He criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and called for “comprehensive and targeted sanctions against Israel, including an immediate arms embargo.”
“The prime minister believes that all negotiations must include limiting the ballistic missiles, and ending support for the Iranian axis,” Netanyahu’s office said in a brief statement, referring to Tehran’s support for militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories. Trump and Netanyahu last met in December.
There was no immediate White House comment.
The US and the Islamic Republic of Iran held indirect talks on Friday in Oman that appeared to return to the starting point on how to approach discussions over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump called the talks “very good” and said more were planned for early next week. Washington was represented by Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to use force to compel Iran to reach a deal on its nuclear program after sending the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships to the region amid Tehran’s crackdown on nationwide protests that killed thousands.
Gulf Arab nations fear an attack could spark a regional war, with memories fresh of the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June.
For the first time in negotiations with Iran, the US on Friday brought its top military commander in the Middle East to the table. US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the military’s Central Command, then visited the USS Abraham Lincoln on Saturday with Witkoff and Kushner, the command said in a statement.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told journalists Friday that “nuclear talks and the resolution of the main issues must take place in a calm atmosphere, without tension and without threats.” He said that diplomats would return to their capitals, signaling that this round of negotiations was over.
On Saturday, Araghchi told the Al Jazeera satellite news network that if the US attacks Iran, his country doesn’t have the ability to strike the US “and therefore has to attack or retaliate against US bases in the region.”
He said there is “very, very deep distrust” after what happened during the previous talks, when the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites during last year’s Israel-Iran war.
Araghchi also said the “missile issue” and other defense matters are “in no way negotiable, neither now nor at any time in the future.”
Tehran has maintained that these talks will be only on its nuclear program.
However, Al Jazeera reported that diplomats from Egypt, Turkiye and Qatar offered Iran a proposal in which Tehran would halt enrichment for three years, send its highly enriched uranium out of the country and pledge to “not initiate the use of ballistic missiles.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the talks needed to include all those issues.
Israel, a close US ally, believes Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon and wants its program scrapped, though Iran has insisted that its atomic plans are for peaceful purposes. Israel also wants a halt to Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for militant groups in the region.
Araghchi, speaking at a forum in Qatar on Saturday, accused Israel of destabilizing the region, saying that it “breaches sovereignties, it assassinates official dignitaries, it conducts terrorist operations, it expands its reach in multiple theaters.” He criticized Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and called for “comprehensive and targeted sanctions against Israel, including an immediate arms embargo.”
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